In season: hazel nut and filbert, September and October.

Nuts are an indigestible food, full of oil, and valuable rather as a source of pleasure by affording us the delightful amusement of Nutting than for any other use they may be to us. The hazel nut is a native fruit.

The filbert is only a variety of the common hazel. It is supposed to derive its name from the words "full beard," applied to it at first on account of the length of its husk. The best nuts grow in Kent. Filberts are reared in orchards, also about Maidstone and elsewhere: they are trained with short stems like gooseberry bushes.

Filberts may be kept for two years by packing them when quite ripe and dry, in their husks (in which they are always served), in earthen jars. A layer of salt must be spread over the fruit, and the jars must be tied down closely with brown paper. They must be kept in a cold place. If they get black and mouldy-looking they may be renovated before using by putting them on a strainer or colander, and shaking them gently over a chafing dish of red-hot charcoal over which a little powdered sulphur has been thrown; the fumes will restore their appearance and render them fit to send to table.

The Almond

The Almond is grown for its kernel also, and may be called a nut, but it is in fact a peach tree. Almond trees are cultivated in England only for their flowers - the fruit is imported from Malaga.